48 – 50 dried apricots
2/3 c. wafers for chocolate making
Melt chocolate in the microwave on medium in microwave-safe bowl. Stir. Coat approximately 1/2 of each apricot in chocolate. (Sample a couple along the way — quality control is important.) Place on baking sheets covered with wax paper to set. Store in a pretty covered container.
Festive Spinach Salad
Spinach salad leaves
A sprinkling of chopped pecans and dried cranberries
Feta Cheese, chopped
Place in a bowl and drizzle with your favorite dressing (I used about 1 T. of strawberry fig balsamic vinegar and 3 T. olive oil, shaken together.) Serves one.
Now that's a coffee - taken at a Canmore, AB coffeehouse last summer
This is cross-posted from my other blog, FibroDAZE, http://www.bignoise-enterprises.com/blog/2010/03/07/abomination/and originally written March, 2010 and entitled “Black Coffee and Other Abominations.”
The Fat Nutritionist http://www.fatnutritionist.com/ is a blog I read. Her tag line is “eating normally is the new black.” I am so down with that. Death to Diets I say! Anyways, her post “Get Out of Jail Free Cards” http://www.fatnutritionist.com/index.php/get-out-of-jail-free-cards/ talks about “largely irrelevant” food labeling. It began with a treatise on coffee and “Canadian style wussy coffee”; that is coffee with cream and sugar. There was a brief introduction which contained a very funny line:
black coffee is an abomination unto the Lord and shall not defile this house
After I finished laughing, made an appropriate comment on her blog about how much we in this house agree with that statement, I started thinking. What other food and/or beverage items are, in our household, “an abomination unto the Lord and shall not defile this house?” I came up with the following list. Note: there’s a bit of a legend:
* = husband’s abominations
*** = my abominations
(no *’s at all means we both agree that these items shall never, ever defile our house.)
List of Foods – Not Exhaustive, although I’m a bit tired after typing now.
Decorated evergreen outside our home
This was sent to me in an email:
1. Avoid carrot sticks. Anyone who puts carrots on a holiday buffet table knows nothing of the Holiday spirit. In fact, if you see carrots, leave immediately. Go next door, where they’re serving rum balls.
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It’s rare… You cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It’s not as if you’re going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It’s a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It’s later than you think. It’s Christmas!
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That’s the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat.
4. As for mashed potatoes, always ask if they’re made with skim milk or whole milk. If it’s skim, pass. Why bother? It’s like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission.
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Holiday party is to eat other people’s food for free. Lots of it. Hello?
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year’s. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you’ll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa, position yourself near them and don’t budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They’re like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you’re never going to see them again.
8. Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you don’t like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three. When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it’s loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards.
10. One final tip: If you don’t feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven’t been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner. Remember this motto to live by:
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand and wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming “WOO HOO what a ride!”
Merry Christmas!
6 oz. frozen lemonade concentrate
6 oz. frozen orange juice concentrate
5 c. each club soda and ginger ale (one large bottle of each)
Put all in a large punch bowl or pitcher. Makes 18, five ounce drinks. This would be great for a potluck or Christmas get together. You could bring the ingredients and container, mix it up and people could serve themselves.
Merry Christmas!
Turn on oven; get out utensils and ingredients. Remove Barbie dolls and toy horses from table. Grease pan, crack nuts. Measure 2 cups of flour, remove Janie’s hands from flour; wash flour off her. Re-measure flour.
Put flour, baking powder and salt in sifter. Get dustpan and brush up pieces of bowl Annie knocked off the floor. Get another bowl. Answer doorbell.
Return to kitchen. Remove Janie’s hands from bowl; remove Annie’s feet from bowl. Remove Annie from table. Wash Annie; wash Janie. Answer phone. Return. Remove ¼ inch salt from greased pan. Look for Annie and Janie. Grease another pan. Answer telephone.
Return to kitchen and find girls. Remove Janie’s hands and Annie’s feet from bowl. Remove Annie from table. Take up greased pan and find layer of nutshells and Barbie shoes in it. Head for Janie and Annie who flee, knocking bowl off table. Wash kitchen floor, table, walls, dishes. Call baker. Lie down.
- author unknown
HO! Ho! Ho!
1 c. butter
1 c. dried fruit
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
Lemon juice
Nuts
1 or 2 quarts whisky
Before you start, sample the whisky to check for quality. Good, isn’t it? Now go ahead.
Select a large mixing bowl, measuring cup, etc. Check the whisky again as it must be just right. To be sure the whisky is of the highest quality, pour 1 level cup into a glass and drink it as fast as you can. REPEAT.
With an electric mixer, beater 1 c. of butter in a large fluffy bowl. Add 1 teaspoon of thugar and beat again. Meanwhile, make sure that the whisky is of the finest quality. Cry another tup. Open second quart if necessary. Add 2 arge leggs, 2 cups fried druit and beat ‘til high. If druit gets stuck in beaters, just pry it loose with a drewscriver. Sample the whisky again, checking for tonscisticity.
Next, sift 3 cups of salt, or anything, it doesn’t really matter.
Sample the whisky.
Sift ½ pint lemon juice. Fold in chopped butter and strained nuts. Add 1 babblespoon of brown thugar, or whatever color you can find, and wix mel. Grease oven and turn cake pan to 350 gredees. Now pour the whole mess into the coven and ake. Check the whisky again and bo to ged.
(I did not write this and I tried to find the source to give proper credit but did not have any success. If anyone knows, let me know in the comments!)
Rice Krispy Squares with a twist
½ cup non-hydrogenated margarine
1 c. natural or light peanut butter
2 c. chocolate chips
2 c. mini marshmallows
3 c. Rice Krispies
I’ve tried to “healthy this up” but this is still a treat!
Melt margarine, peanut butter and chocolate chips in a large pot. Cool and add marshmallows and Rice Krispies. Press into greased 9 x 12 pan. Cut into squares.
This stuffing recipe, adapted from The New Chatelaine Cookbook, avoids the use of sausage and organ meats in it, neither of which are favorites in this household. It can be cooked inside or outside the bird, depending on your personal preferences.
Apple Nut Stuffing
Melt 1/4 c. margarine in a large saucepan. Stir in 1 chopped onion and saute until soft. Add 1 chopped celery stalk, 2 peeled, cored and chopped apples, 1/2 c. chopped nuts, 3 cups bread crumbs, 1 tsp. poultry seasoning and 1 cup apple juice. Place in a greased 6 cup casserole dish and bake in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 4 cups of stuffing.
This time of year, there are extra demands on everyone. The additional shopping and cooking can put a strain on the most energetic of persons. I find it really takes a toll on me, it’s difficult to pace, and I start to loathe this time of year.
Some of these tips might help all of us.
This snacks will fit into your purse or backpack or “man-purse”, keep well for two hours, and keep your energy up:
For more snack ideas:
http://chronicinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/gifts-from-the-kitchen/
http://chronicinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2010/10/18/sesame-seed-squares/
http://chronicinthekitchen.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/pb-b-wrap/
Chronic in the Kitchen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
